So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
Acts 8:30-31, ESV
We place far too much weight in having answers and far too little weight in asking questions.
Answers reveal mastery and authority. Questions are standards of those still seeking.
This article is about how we read the Bible, and, more broadly, how we approach our faith. But I want to make one thing very clear early on: absolute Truth exists and is knowable. I am not suggesting that the Bible is a book of utter mystery that we can’t really understand. I’m not advocating for the subjective interpretation of the Bible. I’m not saying that God is not easily knowable.
I believe that the Bible is true. I believe it is the very word of God. It is one of the ways that God has revealed Himself. God is knowable. The Bible is knowable. They are not esoteric theories or mystical secrets.
The Comfortable Surface
That said, I believe we need to return to the spirit of the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8.
Far too often, we hide from questions because our culture has convinced us that questions are a form of weakness. Questions are for children and the ignorant. Strong people have answers. That is what we tell ourselves.
Questions reveal our lack of knowledge and therefore, our vulnerabilities.
This aversion to questions has crept into our faith. We are suspicious of doubts and questions. We want to have a certain faith. But of course, this is a contradiction. For faith is the certainty of things that we can’t see (Hebrews 11:1). So we are left with the strategy of ignoring our questions.
Do we read the Bible critically?
I don’t mean critically in the sense that we pick it apart with our human wisdom, offering “critiques”. Instead, I mean do we read it with an awake mind? Are our eyes scanning the pages, leaping over familiar verses? Or are we reading these words as if for the first time?
Are we reading the Bible with a questioning heart, to discern what we can learn from its pages? Or are we confident that we already have the answers.
This has led to many people scraping the surface of biblical truth and being satisfied with the comfortable surface. To go deeper requires us to admit that we have more questions than answers. Learning begins with questions. Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord, not the arrogance to believe we have nothing more to learn from Him.
“How Can I Understand?”
In Acts 8 we are told about the apostle Phillip’s interaction with an Ethiopian eunuch in the desert. The Ethiopian is in his chariot, reading from the scroll of Isaiah when Phillip asks him if he understands what he is reading.
He responds very honestly: “How can I [understand], unless someone guides me?”
This gives Phillip the opportunity to step into the chariot and share the Gospel. He points out how Isaiah 53, the passage the Ethiopian is reading, speaks about Christ. This leads to the Ethiopian’s conversion and baptism.
The question we must ask ourselves is this: Do we understand what we are reading?
There is room for certainty in the Christian faith. Generous room. We serve a certain God who is Truth Himself (John 14:6). God has revealed His will to us (Ephesians 1:9). But this doesn’t mean that we will automatically understand everything the first time we read it.
Search Them Out
Proverbs 25:2 declares, “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.” Let’s read the Bible with this glorious desire to search things out, ask questions, and humbly learn.
Isaiah 55:8-9 talks about the transcendence of the mind of God. Additionally, John 1:18 tells us that this transcendence was revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.
God is not a scowling teacher who slaps our hands if we can’t produce the right answers. He is a wise and humble king who welcomes our questions. The way we read His word should likewise encourage questions. I have started a habit of writing down questions in a journal as I read the Bible. If I read something that I don’t understand, I write it down so I can come back to it and study it more in depth later.